How would we know if the energy bill is responsible for mines closing instead of some other factor? I guess every mine closure should be blamed on environmentalists in Shimkus' world.
A coal industry lobbyist echoes Shimkus saying,
"Following the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the Illinois coal industry suffered greatly. We went from 36 coal mines producing 62 million tons of coal with 10,000 employees to just 15 coal mines in 2003 producing 31 million tons of coal with only 3,500 employees. I am very concerned about what the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill will do to the Illinois coal industry."Tree-huggers make an easy scapegoat but even that lobbyist knows better. What I find interesting about his numbers is that productivity is cut roughly in half but jobs went down by almost 2/3rds. It's true that there are fewer coal mining jobs but the US Bureau of Labor Statistics gives a reality check about why.
Employment in mining will decrease. The growing U.S. and world economies will continue to demand larger quantities of the raw materials produced by mining, but the increased output will be able to be met by new technologies and new extraction techniques that increase productivity and require fewer workers.They further reiterate that,
Employment in the mining industry has been affected significantly by new technology and more sophisticated mining techniques that increase productivity. Most mining machines and control rooms are now automatic or computer-controlled, requiring fewer, if any, human operators. Many mines also operate with other sophisticated technology such as lasers and robotics, which further increases the efficiency of resource extraction. As a result, mine employment has been falling over time, particularly of workers who are involved in the extraction process itself.Even future increases in demand, they state, will not result in new coal mining jobs because "rising demand for coal is met with productivity gains from more efficient and automated production operations" including longwall mining methods being used in Illinois. A report on job growth in the 90's states that, although Illinois was at a disadvantage for having high-sulfur coal, job losses in coal mining were slower than in the 80's, and productivity increased even while jobs decreased.
(Where's the miner?)
Let's be clear about this. Under no circumstance will coal mining ever be a major source of new job growth in Central and Southern Illinois! Even if every environmental regulation is taken off the books and there's an inconceivable rise in demand for coal, it won't result in added jobs because new mining methods require fewer workers.
Every politician who promises to revive the regional economy with coal mining has been fooled or is a gutless panderer for King Coal. That's the hard reality.
It's time for Illinois leaders with any vision to stop making empty promises about reviving coal with even more wasted taxpayer subsidies and instead find new energy industries to recharge the downstate economy. It has been done elsewhere and it can be done here.